(Vauxhall press release)
�50 MILLION DUALFUEL ORDER FOR VAUXHALL
Vauxhall is to supply 3,200 dualfuel cars to the fast growing company Drive Assist.

The order - worth �50 million at showroom prices -- is believed to be the world�s biggest ever single order for cars that can run on either LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or petrol.

At a stroke it has exceeded total dualfuel vehicle production by Vauxhall since the company first entered the market in the spring of last year.

This year Vauxhall�s dualfuel sales will reach more than 2,000. With the Drive Assist order sales during 2000 are expected to reach more than 6,500.

Vauxhall remains the market leader and is still the only car maker to offer its own manufacturer-warranted range.

The Drive Assist fleet will include Vauxhall dualfuel cars like Astra and Vectra, as well as some up-market dualfuel Omega models and a number of sporty Vectra SRi 140s. Of the total deal, 1000 cars will replace existing Vauxhalls operated by Drive Assist, a further 1000 will replace other manufacturers� models, and 1200 will be direct expansion of the company�s fleet.

First dualfuel models arrive at Drive Assist later this month, with delivery of the full order spread over the next 12 months.

Said Vauxhall chairman and managing director Nick Reilly: "This order is a major breakthrough. LPG is the most economically and environmentally viable fuel available, and Vauxhall has shown the way.

"We are confident that this will be the first of many deals, but significantly, too, it will give thousands of everyday private drivers the chance to experience LPG as an alternative - and much cheaper - fuel to petrol."

Drive Assist managing director, Steve Binch said the dualfuel fleet would be used alongside conventional engined vehicles as replacements supplied to insurance companies for drivers whose cars are off the road for accident damage repairs. They will be handed to drivers with a tankful of LPG.

With several drivers using each car, the arrangement means that potentially more than 15,000 private drivers will see the benefits to their pocket and to the environment of using LPG.

This is because a car like a Vectra 2.0 litre dualfuel model running on LPG can cover 178 miles for �10 worth of LPG as against just 101 miles for the same value in petrol.

Financial arrangements for the Drive Assist deal have been concluded with Arriva, the finance company which is part of the General Motors worldwide organisation.

Drive Assist will benefit from a full 75 per cent reimbursement of the additional �1950 cost of the Vauxhall dualfuel option from Energy Efficient Powershift, a government-backed initiative run by the Energy Saving Trust which aims to establish a sustainable market in the UK for greener fuels.

This means the true extra cost of a dualfuel car or van from Vauxhall is below �500, which is recouped within the first year or so of normal operation because of the dramatically lower cost of LPG compared to that of petrol.

EST Powershift manager, Jonathan Murray said: "This deal will provide the most significant boost so far for the clean fuel vehicle market in the UK. Powershift is delighted to play a part in this."